4/14/2009 @ 6:00PM

The Twitter Zeitgeist

BURLINGAME, Calif. — Twitter became a part of popular culture in less time then it takes to write a 140-character status update.

According to the Pew Research Center, 11% of online American adults said they used a social networking service like Twitter last December. That’s up 2% from a few weeks earlier and almost double the 6% of Internet users in May 2008.

In case you missed out on watching Twitter’s growth–the microblogging platform processes 6 million messages, or “tweets,” a day–we’ve compiled a list of pivotal moments in the company’s recent history. To help illustrate the growing Twitter zeitgeist, we included a couple of interesting, though unscientific, metrics: media mentions, as aggregated by Factiva, and Wikipedia page views, according to Wikirank.com.

The attacks killed more than a 100 people, but some people near the scene shared their survival accounts, highlighting some of the benefits of Twitter’s real-time broadcast platform.

Dec. 22, 2008: Continental AirlinesFlight 1404

Wikipedia page views: 8,243

Media mentions: 98

Continental Airlines Flight 1404 veers off the runway at Denver International Airport, injuring 38 people and eventually bursting into flames.

“Holy f****** s*** I wasbjust in a plane crash!” passenger Mike Wilson broadcast to the world in a tweet from his mobile phone. In another Twitter message, Wilson wrote: “You have your wits scared out of you, drag your butt out of a flaming ball of wreckage and you can’t even get a vodka-tonic.”

News of the crash–and Wilson’s in situ reporting–was picked up by news outlets across the world.

Jan. 6, 2009: Wacky Hacking

Wikipedia page views: 22,385

Media mentions: 92

Thanks to lax password security policies around brute force attacks, Twitter briefly falls into the hands of a teen hacker. In total, 33 accounts were hijacked, including those of CNN anchor Rick Sanchez and pop star Britney Spears with fake updates.

“High on crack right now,” said the fake Rick Sanchez. “Might not be coming into work today.”

Jan. 16, 2009: U.S. Airways Crash Landing

Wikipedia page views: 11,820

Media mentions: 102

Florida resident Janis Krums uploads one of the most widely circulated pieces of citizen journalism to date: A picture of U.S. Airways Flight 1549 crashing in the Hudson River outside New York City.

“There’s a plane in the Hudson. I’m on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy,” read Krums’ status update.

The spot journalism has been viewed more than 400,000 times and appeared on news portals across the Web. Unsurprisingly, the Web site hosting the post crashed as well.

Feb. 2, 2009: Super Bowl Visualization

Wikipedia page views: 20,533

Media mentions: 133

The New York Times runs a widely circulated interactive map of the Twitter chatter that went on during the Super Bowl.

Based on Flash technology, the map allows users to visualize a time-lapsed data display of then real-time chatter about the teams, players and commercials.

Feb. 26, 2009: Free Tweets

Wikipedia page views: 38,695

Media mentions: 168

Four days after announcing two-way SMS service for customers of Bell Mobility, Twitter users were surprised to learn that the Canadian telecommunications firm charged 15 cents for every tweet sent or received from their devices.

Bell Mobility argued that Twitter messages are a premium service and not included in calling plans. Two days later, however, the company recanted and announced that Tweeting would be free.

March 13, 2009: “Twitter Mania”

Wikipedia page views: 42,291

Media mentions: 196

One day after Internet traffic monitor Hitwise announced Twitter is sending one in five visits downstream to social networks and entertainment sites, TechCrunch editor Erick Schonfeld declares a “Twitter Mania.”

Schonfeld takes a look at the site’s burgeoning traffic figures, notes the large developer community around the site and concludes that all signs point to a steep growth rate for Twitter. “It is still early days,” Schonfeld noted. “Can its growth keep accelerating or is it unsustainable?”

March 18, 2009: John McCain’s Twitter Interview

Wikipedia page views: 45,778

Media mentions: 306

One day earlier, Sen. John McCain conducts his first Twitter interview with George Stephanopoulos. “Hi George, I’m a little slow,” the senator tweeted.

The politician has been a Twitter user since January. According to his staff, McCain controls 100% of the content of his posts.

March 23, 2009: Is Twitter Making Money?

Wikipedia page views: 57,655

Media mentions: 301

Twitter endorses ExecTweets, a Federated Media site that aggregates the updates of executives who use Twitter. Bloggers and the media are abuzz about whether Twitter has finally figured out a way to start making money.

Twitter founder Biz Stone explains in a blog post that Twitter is focused on developing the platform, rather than the applications that run on top of it.

Over the next couple of days, it emerges that Twitter doesn’t charge advertisers for text ads.

March 25, 2009: Micro-Education

Wikipedia page views: 67,014

Media mentions: 294

The U.K.’s Guardian newspaper reviews drafts of a proposed primary school curriculum and reveals that students will have to be familiar with blogging, podcasts, Wikipedia and Twitter as sources of information.

According to the curriculum, the Victorian period and World War II are optional subjects.

March 27, 2009: Ghost in the Machine

Wikipedia page views: 58,355

Media mentions: 295

The New York Times runs a story on “ghost Twitterers,” a term for celebrity accounts that are updated by paid outsiders.

Stone describes Twitter as “the messaging system that we didn’t know we needed until we had it.” Stephen Colbert replies: “That sounds like the answer to a problem we didn’t have until I invented the answer.”